Jeanne G'Fellers - No Sister of Mine by Jeanne G'Fellers (reading tree TXT) 📗

until someone else finds my daughter. Krell didn’t.”

“Krell refuses to wear a sash,” retorted Chandrey.

Belsas cocked her head. “Maybe Krell senses something we can’t. LaRenna’s talents are still developing.”

“Were developing,” cried Chandrey despairingly. “I refuse to raise my hopes otherwise.”

“Nonetheless, we’re going to start our search where Krell’s group was looking when they disappeared. We’ll follow them.”

“We need a third for a team.” Chandrey tacked up her hair with a long-toothed comb from her bag. “How about Malley Whellen? She seems good on her feet.”

Belsas grinned at her. “You read my mind.” They exited the launch, pausing long enough to put on their cloaks and exchange a quick kiss. Belsas jumped across the scattered puddles with an energetic bounce Chandrey hadn’t seen in some time. She joined her lover’s play, springing across the water spots easily, but without the same level of long-legged grace.

They crossed the encampment until they reached the stores tent. Belsas spoke momentarily with the sentry then ducked inside while Chandrey waited. She quickly emerged with ropes, three plasma bows, and recharge packs. “I’ll find Whellen. Why don’t you get us some rations?” Belsas passed Chandrey a bow and charger. “Meet me back here as soon as you’re ready.”

“Who’re you leaving in command?” Chandrey knotted her bow’s ties.

“I’ll bring Protocol Master Quall in to supervise until we return. She runs a tight operation.”

“What about the two dead and one missing on team four?”

Belsas appreciated the forethought. “I’ll have the other teams keep an eye out for the missing third. It was probably an unfortunate accident. However, I’ll have all teams go armed from this point.” She bent down to give Chandrey another quick kiss on the forehead. “Hurry now. Time is wasting.”

Chandrey watched as Belsas disappeared into the main communications tent, then turned toward her next task, shaking her head. Surely Belsas wasn’t hanging on to the same delusions as Krell. Cance had been worse than anyone remembered. The crash had been too sudden. LaRenna was dead, plain and simple. No amount of denial would ever change that.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Discovery of love lost is the most powerful of healing agents.

—Taelach wisdom

Tatra stood on the edge of the fifth canyon they had encountered that morning. The hole appeared much as the others—a brown, rock-laden gash, oozing with muddy churn. She couldn’t understand how Krell could be so adamant this was where LaRenna was. It was identical to everything else they had seen. She raked her boots over a sharp stone to remove the mud then turned back to where Krell and Firman stood. “Found our location yet?”

Krell glanced over the map and shrugged. “Still looking.”

“It’s not shown.” Firman caught the scroll’s edge when a wind gust pulled it from his grasp.

“Not all the canyons are,” replied Krell. “The Kinship generally doesn’t record the ones containing Hiding Caves. Their locations are passed down orally.”

“Secrets, secrets.” There was an inordinate amount of whimsy in Firman’s voice. “The Kinship is full of them.”

Tatra smoothed back her hair. “If we recorded them, they’d be ransacked for supplies. You know how Auts are.”

“Hey!” Firman caught her by the sleeve. “What do I look like?”

“I wasn’t referring to you in particular.” Tatra’s attempt to cover her blunder only made things worse. “It’s just that as a whole, Autlachs can’t be trusted.”

“Cruel-hearted woman.” Firman stared at her. “I thought we might have something special happening between us and now open bigotry from you!”

“Wait . . . I . . . Krell, help me!”

“Don’t bother.” Firman shrugged her off and stormed over to where their packs rested. He picked up Krell’s and his own, setting them neatly on a rain-washed boulder. Tatra’s he used as a footrest, grinding it into the mud with a vindictive twist of his heels.

“You stepped in it.” Krell’s eyes never left the map. “You can clean it off of your boots—and your pack.”

“Go talk to him,” begged Tatra as Krell stowed the map. “Tell him I didn’t mean it that way.”

“Didn’t you?” She turned away. “You explain yourself. I don’t have to understand you anymore, not that I ever could.” She watched as Tatra tried, in her own lofty-headed way, to explain away what was said.

Krell. LaRenna’s voice was clear.

LaRenna, darlin’, where are you? The question rolled so explosively through Krell that she couldn’t differentiate between speech and thought.

Krell.

Tell me where you are and I’ll come to you.

Close. The impression of a dark opening formed in Krell’s mind. It was one of the Hiding Caves but which one? There were dozensspread across the Glory Land, three or four in each unmarked canyon.

Which one, LaRenna? Which one? More images came clear: rising floodwaters, cliffs, the marker for a Hiding Cave, then nothing. Show me where you are. Still nothing. LaRenna!

Krell. LaRenna’s voice was incredibly weak. Down . . . down.

Down? Krell’s mind became void of LaRenna’s presence. Down where? Help me find you. LaRenna? The mental tie reestablished, but barely. Hold on my precious bird. My wren. I’m coming Wren bird. Hold on!

I love y . . . LaRenna was gone, leaving the distinct sense of a deep, coma-like sleep . . . no thoughts, no pain, just sleep, sleep necessary to keep her frail body alive.

“I love you, too.” Krell opened her eyes to find Firman and Tatra staring with well-founded concern.

“You were screaming.” Firman gripped his sibling’s shoulder. Krell looked around him to the canyon edge.

“She’s down there, Fir, in a Hiding Cave.”

“We know.” Tatra shuddered. “Everyone on Saria Four knows.”

“Was I that loud?”

“And then some,” answered Firman. “We’ll begin looking as soon as this fog lifts a little.”

Krell ignored him and walked to the canyon brim. “No time. She needs me now.” She looked to the left then right, then disappeared into the fog, moving in a northeasterly direction. But the farther she went, the emptier she felt. “Wrong.” She reversed course, concentrating on LaRenna’s presence until Tatra and Firman came back into view.

“What’s she doing?” Tatra stepped forward.

“I’ve no